Skiing without Snow

Well, here in La Massana in Andorra, we have absolutely no snow. None. Not a flake.

Large parts of the Horn family got stuck because of the snow. Tris couldn’t even get off the rig – even the helicopters out of Aberdeen were cancelled due to the weather! So he never made it. Connie, Scott and the girls were stuck in America, ‘cos flights out of Dulles to Heathrow were cancelled (they arrived, eventually, 3 days late).

On Christmas Eve it sort of fluttered down some, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. My Father-in-Law (FIL) says that was because it was so cold the moisture in the air was freezing and making snow. But not enough to ski on!

xmas 2009: What it should look like in Andorra, but didn't! Although I hear everywhere else in Europe had snow!

So, we were the only people in Europe, it would seem, who didn’t have a white Christmas! Having said that, the Germans do Christmas on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day. That usually works out rather well, since it means we can spend Xmas Day skiing. usually. But like I say, there’s no snow this time! Well, there was some snow and ice on the roads up at the top, where FIL took the girls to stand on their skis for the first time. So much, that we didn’t dare try it with the summer tyres on our rental car!

But that was before the wind yesterday blew it all off. So, it’s day 7 now (we arrived in the early hours of the twentieth) and we still haven’t been skiing. On Xmas Day we bought tickets (6 days, but like I say, the snow was blown off the mountains the following day!

We did need to find snow chains though (well, we were worried it would snow!), and since we were off to the supermarket, we decided to ceck the chains we have in the garage to see if ay fitted. So Marc thought it would be a good idea to knock a bottle of FIL’s 96% alcohol with foresaid chains, and smash it in his eyes. So instead of shopping we ended up in the hospital emergency room. Ha. The lengths he will go to to get out of shopping!